Aspiring nurses probably didn’t expect an arts project for their first assignment.
But that's what they were given at Lakehead University as more than 200 students learned about patient care through a mask-making project. Called An Aesthetic Expression of Caring Through Mask Making and Storytelling, students paired off and interviewed each other.
They then they took plastic and plaster to create masks of each other before painting them.
First-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing student Socorro Woodman said it started as a nerve wracking experience but she learned a lot.
"It sort of forced us to do something hands on," she said.
"It was a really innovative way to talk about caring and being able to explore the idea of taking care of someone else."
That's what nursing professor Michelle Spadoni was hoping for. The school got a grant fro the proejct through the Associated Medical Services Phoenix Foundation. Teaching students to care can be difficult. It's usually done with Powerpoint presentations and chapter readings. This was an opportunity to trust a complete stranger.
"Caring comes from an idea of how do you know yourself and how do I know somebody else," she said.
"You have to think constantly about the person that you're doing this with."
The students learned so much through the project they want to do it again near the end of their fourth year of school.
